Okay, so overall this episode was...nothing special. The animation was really awkward a lot of the time, and the gag humor (which, yes, was taken from the manga) just doesn't work as well in anime form. Like when giant!Sheska talks for half a minute before the animation goes back to normal. That was really jarring.

Again, Al's dialogue is shafted. He's so two-dimensional that it's making me sad. Sure, he says some nice things to Sheska, but it all seems so...hollow. It's not even that he's different from the first anime's Alphonse - it's that he's a main character with the depth of a side character. I'm seriously having trouble getting a feel for his voice and personality, and it's already seven episodes in. :/

Maria Ross's voice is way too girly, IMO.

But hey, the pacing was fine, and the voice acting was good as usual. Let's hope that next week the animation quality picks up again.